Monday, November 30, 2009

Day 1, Second Half

The last part of the day ended up being the best.Four students came to the ISA office around 4:30pm and we spent 2 hours chatting about their time in Rome.I love that part – it reminds me why I like my job!Then afterwards we went to a little pizza shop that is right by ISA and I had some incredible pizza.So, two good Italian meals in one day and I’m feeling much better.Now to figure out how to get to my meeting tomorrow . . .

Favorite observations from the meeting with students:

Recognizing the double standard Americans have with language; we want people who come to our country to speak English, and yet expect to speak English when we go abroad, too.

Italian teenagers are a hundred times worse than American teenagers.

Adjectives like busy, crowded, & noisy are not negative when they talk about Rome.That’s just how it is and they love it.

It’s possible to get used to walking past the Pantheon every day, so that you don’t even notice it.

People ask me “What did you do? What did you see?”But it’s not about seeing all of the museums and monuments.It’s about being able to give an Italian woman directions (in Italian!) and figuring out the bus system.That’s what I’m proud of.